What are the most common "exercise mistakes"?

First things first, the risk of inactivity far exceeds the risk of activity.  Many diseases that historically been thought of as diseases of age such as diabetes and cardiovascular disease are proving to be diseases of inactivity.

That said, there are common mistakes that can be easily fixed to give you a more well rounded, balanced exercise program:

1. Not weight training: Weight or resistance training simply means using your own body weight or other resistance such as hand weights or elastic bands to challenge your muscles.  Proper weight training will reduce chance of injury, increase lean muscle to keep you trimmer, build bone density and help you lose body fat.
2. Not changing exercise routines: It makes sense to choose an exercise activity that you enjoy but make sure that you change your route, try a new activity and change your tempo and distance if you are primarily a walker.  Your body gets very efficient at exercise if you do the same thing the same way week after week you will not make gains towards your exercise goals.
3. Ignoring certain muscles: Many regular exercisers have some overdeveloped muscles such as the front of their thighs (quadriceps) and chest and underdeveloped muscles such as the back of their thighs (hamstrings) and back.  When developing your exercise routine make sure that you incorporate exercises for the back of the body with as much focus as your front of body exercises.  

Here are two videos to help balance your training program:

If you have questions about how on-line training works or live in Toronto (or the GTA) and would like an in-home personal trainer drop me a note erin@vintagefitness.ca

Good Luck!

Erin

Vintage Fitness

Click to Call    416-951-7978

Vintage Fitness is an in home personal training company in Toronto, Canada.  We specialize in energizing the lives of people over 50 with exercise.